Configuration

By default WeeChat stores its configuration files in ~/.weechat. Editing these files directly is not recommended because WeeChat may write them at any time.[1]

Instead you should use the /set command. You can get a list of all configurable options by running /set in the WeeChat buffer window. Since there are nearly 600 default configurable options, you can search through them with a wildcard syntax: /set irc.server.* or /set *server* as an example. You can get help on each option with the /help command:

/help irc.server.freenode.autoconnect

Tip: In case you want to move ~/.weechat directory somewhere else (like in your $XDG_CONFIG_HOME), use this option: $weechat -d $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/weechat or set the environment variable WEECHAT_HOME.

Connecting to a server

Note: Using /connect to connect to a temporary server is disabled by default if you're using 1.1+ Release Note

Enable by /set irc.look.temporary_servers on

You can connect to a IRC server by using /connect.

/connect chat.freenode.net

Or if there is already a Server setup you can use:

/connect freenode

Creating a Server profile

If you plan on connecting to a server more than once it may be beneficial to create a Server.

/server add example irc.example.net/6667

Would create the server example which would connect to irc.example.net on port 6667

in any buffer, and the smart filter will only be enabled for that buffer.

The following alias will remove a previously enabled smart filter in the current buffer. Add the alias:

/alias add rmsfilter filter del irc_smart_$server_$channel

and execute it by

/rmsfilter

Exec command

A new plugin called "exec" has been added, with command /exec. It will execute external command and can display output to the current buffer with the -o option or locally (default).

Key Bindings

See /help key.

SSH connection lost when idle

If you're connecting to your WeeChat through a remote shell using SSH, for example running it in GNU Screen or tmux you might experience getting disconnected after a while when idle. There are multiple factors in play why this might happen, but the easiest way to change this is to force the connection to be kept alive by appending this to your SSH-configuration on the remote shell.

This has nothing to do with WeeChat itself, but losing connection when idle won't happen with it's alternative irssi by default, and thus is a common situation for those converting to WeeChat.

Mobile device notifications

To receive notifications for mentions or private messages to an Android mobile device, you can use the IrssiNotifier port to WeeChat from here. This script requires a Google Account, and a registration step with the service provider to obtain an API key. Then, install the plugin

The default configuration for weechat attempts to load all plugins found in /usr/lib/weechat/plugins which in this case includes ruby, lua, aspell and tcl. These packages are not required by the weechat package and may not be installed on your machine. There are two options if these errors bother you: